


Metal Heart

by aem77



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 04:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2215461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aem77/pseuds/aem77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bea comes to a realization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Metal Heart

Bea stares absently at the carpeting of Hero’s floor. She can’t stop wondering how they all got here. Hadn’t it just been little over a week ago, she and Hero had been baking cookies in the kitchen, getting prepared for the birthday party, with no greater care in the world than worrying about what a boy with messy hair and clear blue eyes might think of her, what she might feel for him? And now that same boy sits beside her on Hero’s bed, the last person she’d have expected to support her in her time of need. She turns to look at him now. 

 

His face is so heartbroken, like he might be about to cry even. Which makes no sense. Certainly he understands the injustice of Hero’s circumstances, but there’s no reason for him to be so invested in the situation, invested to the point he’d shed tears. But too late, Bea realizes Ben is not the one about to cry as she brings the back of her hand to her own wet cheeks.

 

She rubs furiously at her eyes now, roughly pushing her palms against them as if to force back the traitorous tears. She doesn’t like this feeling of vulnerability, particularly not in front of Ben. The only person before this nightmarish week who’d ever been able to make her feel this way. Like she needed to strike, lest she get struck.

 

But Ben isn’t striking now, hasn’t been on the offensive for weeks really. On the contrary he seems to be battling with himself on whether or not to offer her any physical comfort at all, his hand frozen in the air just inches from her shoulder. She makes the decision for him, leaning her body into his open hand, which cups around her shoulder with the contact and pulls her into his chest. She rests there a minute, fully giving into the sobs that have been choking her sinuses for days now, willing away the awkwardness that the situation must present.

 

After several moments her crying finally recedes and she shifts slightly to look up into Ben’s face. He looks pained and she has the ridiculous notion that somehow just by the simple act of his presence he’s managed to soak up some of her misery. As if her tears, that have thoroughly soaked through the front of his shirt, have made their way through his chest and into his heart.

 

She’s exhausted now, like only a good cry and several nights of poor sleep can make someone, so she extricates herself from Ben’s embrace and lies down resting her head upon Hero’s pillow. Looking back to Ben he looks a little bereft from her action and tired as well so she reaches up for his hand and pulls him down as well. He lies abnormally still for a moment before relaxing somewhat and tentatively resting a hand upon her waist.

 

It is comforting. And Ben is her friend now, she knows. But this is not how friends comfort one another. This is something different. And maybe its because they are so close she can feel his chest rise and fall with his breath and knows he can feel hers too. Or maybe because her head is turned from his and she can’t see his face. But for whatever reason, now, lying with him like this, she can finally admit to herself that this is what she wants, what she’s wanted for a long time, maybe for as long as she’s known Benedick.

 

The fighting with him, lying to and hiding from herself - what had it been worth? She’d spent so long denying her feelings, nursing her contempt, and protecting herself from a fourteen years olds’ heartbreak. Well no longer, she thinks, adjusting her position to face him. Without a word she reaches for his hand and entwines their fingers looking up into his eyes.

 

“Know what’s weird?” He asks looking nervously from her gaze to their joined hands. “I love you so much, like more than anything in the whole world. Crazy, right?”

 

God help me, she thinks moving to close the space between them, she just might love him back.


End file.
